Alibaba’s South China Morning Post Purchase Puts Focus On News Coverage
Chinese e-commerce boss Jack Ma is emulating America’s Amazon.com boss Jeff Bezos, who recently purchased The Washington Post, by purchasing his own media empire in Hong Kong, the South China Morning Post. Alibaba Group Holding Limited says it has entered into a definite agreement to acquire the South China Morning Post and other media assets […]
While Blocked In Mainland China, Facebook Heads To Taiwan
Taiwanese government officials revealed that Facebook plans to build a data center in Changhua, Taichung. Commenting on the news, Facebook confirmed that they did find a suitable location in Taiwan to build a new data center; however, they have not yet made the final decision. The government officials from Changhua said that Facebook hired a […]
Suning Appoints New CEO (Yet Again) For PPTV
PPTV’s employees have received an appointment notice stating that Mi Xin will become new president and chief executive officer of PPTV, according to an insider from the company. Since being acquired by Suning in 2013, PPTV’s CEO has changed three times. The notice included three appointments. Fan Zhijun was appointed chairman of management committee of […]
What Chilling Effect Would Alibaba’s Investment Have On Free Media?
The e-commerce giant Alibaba Group is reportedly planning a newspaper investment in Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post, according to multiple reports in Chinese local media. However, neither side has commented on or verified the news. South China Morning Post is reportedly the largest English-language newspaper in Hong Kong, with a circulation of about 110,000 […]
Chinese E-Commerce Eyes Stability During Year’s Biggest Shopping Day
In the West, today is the remembrance of the end of World War One. But in China, November 11 is Singles’ Day and the entire country has prepared for an online sales onslaught. In 2014, Alibaba posted more than USD9 billion in sales on China’s Singles’ Day. And this year rivals JD.com and Suning hope […]
Legend Holdings Invests In Chinese Social Mobility Company
Legend Holdings announced a USD58.5 million strategic investment in Social Touch, a corporate mobile social marketing solutions provider in China. Social Touch, which was formerly known as ShiquTech, was established in 2011. As a social management system, service and data solutions provider, the company mainly focuses on providing Social CRM solutions to enterprises. Commenting on […]
Tmall.com Teams With Oil Giant For Mobile Payments
Chinese B2C e-commerce platform Tmall.com and China National Petroleum Corporation’s Hunan branch will integrate their resources to launch a mobile payment service model. Tmall.com, which is a subsidiary of Alibaba, said that the company will integrate Alibaba’s ecosphere to help CNPC Hunan implement an “Internet Plus” transformation that includes an online store, mobile payment, big […]
Chinese Social Media Aggregation Site Shuts Down
Chinese forum aggregation site Daqi.com formally announced its closure. Daqi.com published a notice on its official website which says they terminated the offering of content services with immediate effect. They apologize for inconvenience caused and appreciate the understanding of users. Founded in November 2004, Daqi.com was originally known as ChinaBBS.com and it is one of […]
Uniqlo Closes Chinese Internet Shopping Retail Site
Days after a sex video filmed in Uniqlo’s Beijing store blew up the Chinese Internet, the Japanese apparel retailer says it has closed its flagship store on JD.com. The store was shuttered on July 20, 2015, after only three months of operation. On April 8, 2015, Uniqlo and JD signed a cooperation agreement and Uniqlo’s […]
Hong Kong Mobile OS Company Aims To Beat Android, Apple
The freshly-minted Hong Kong-based mobile operating system company Acadine Technologies is hoping to make room for itself among the ubiquitous of Android and iOS devices. The company says it received USD100 million in its first round financing from China-based Tsinghua Unigroup International. Acadine is so new, that only yesterday, July 15, did it register and […]
China’s Online Travel Sector Finds Big New Investment
Who said only Ctrip and eLong ruled the Chinese Internet travel world? LY.com, one of China’s many privately-run travel booking websites, announced that they have gained over CNY6 billion new investments from Wanda Culture Industry Group, Tencent Industry Win-Win Fund, and CITIC Capital. As the lead investor, Wanda Culture Industry Group invested CNY3.58 billion in […]
Foreign Governments Join Chinese E-commerce Leader To Promote Global Trade
Alibaba is working directly with foreign embassies in China to expand its influence and sales potential around the world. The e-commerce company has opened 11 official country pavilions on its Tmall Global platform and cooperative partnerships between Juhuasuan, Alibaba’s group-buying platform, and 26 foreign embassies in China. A total of 11 countries, including United States, […]
China’s Tencent Invests In Another American Mobile Game Firm
Tencent reportedly invested USD60 million in the acquisition of a 20% stake in Pocket Gems, a start-up mobile game company in America. Tencent will gain one position on the board of directors at Pocket Gems, according to reports in foreign media. Founded in 2009, Pocket Gems is headquartered in San Francisco and the company is […]
58.com Acquires ChinaHR.com
Chinese classified information website 58.com announced that the company has acquired the well-known recruitment website ChinaHR.com. However, no financial details were immediately available. On the completion of the acquisition, ChinaHR.com will maintain its independent operation, brand, and team. As a result of the acquisition, Ireland’s Saon Group, former parent company of ChinaHR.com, will withdraw itself […]
China’s Baidu Bids Sayonara To Japanese Search Engine
Following several years’ operation in the Japanese market, Chinese search engine company Baidu announced a decision to close its Japanese search engine service Baidu.jp. A spokesperson from Baidu confirmed that the Japanese search engine has been shut down. However, the spokesperson quoted in local Chinese media said they will not rule out the possibility to […]
Yandex Teams With Chinese E-commerce For Cross-Border Payments
Chinese and Russian technology companies plan to jointly launch an e-commerce platform which aims to promote the cross-border trading between China and Russia. Russian online payment system Yandex.Money will start handling payment services for China online payment platform TradeEase. This project is expected to be launched in summer of 2015 and its turnover is expected […]
China’s Cheetah Mobile Acquires MobPartner For USD58 Million
China’s Cheetah Mobile has acquired the entire stake in the global mobile marketing company MobPartner for USD58 million. The payment will be reportedly realized in cash and stock. Fu Sheng, chief executive officer of Cheetah Mobile, said that by integrating Cheetah Mobile’s large and increasing mobile traffic with MobPartner’s global advertiser resources, leading mobile advertising […]
What Twitter Can And Can’t Do In Hong Kong As It Views China
Hong Kong’s geographic proximity to mainland China belies the gulf in business practices, Internet laws, and access that Twitter will find between the refined transparency of Hong Kong and the nuances and perils of the mainland Chinese Internet sector. Twitter announced plans this week to open an office in Hong Kong. Though the company says […]
What’s The Future For Taxi Apps In China?
On Valentine’s Day, two of China’s taxi-hailing apps agreed to merge. But is this a good business decision and does it benefit consumers in China? China’s two leading taxi-hailing apps Didi Dache and Kuaidi Dache jointly announced on February 14, 2015, that the two companies will realize a strategic integration and they will hold an […]
Game Over For Zynga’s Beijing Office
American game developer Zynga announced that the company will close its office in Beijing. Zynga announced the decision while publishing its performance report for the fourth quarter of 2014. The company said that they will cut the 71 jobs in Beijing office and the related expense of USD7 million will be included in the first […]
Possible Class Action Suit Against Alibaba For Disclosure Failures
Alibaba and its executives may feel the sting of American jurisprudence as law firms line up for possible class action lawsuits in the United States against the Chinese e-commerce company. At least five law firms so far have expressed intentions to commence class actions against Alibaba. For example, a complain from Robbins Geller Rudman & […]
Facebook To Establish Office In Taiwan
Facebook will reportedly set up a new office in Taiwan which will be engaged in platform advertising sales.
Suning Appoints Management Committee Chairman For PPTV
China’s Suning announced plans to increase its strategic investment in PPTV, a Chinese video website. At the same time, its board of directors appointed Fan Zhijun, executive president for Suning in East China, as chairman of the management committee at PPTV. Suning said that over the past year of transition, the strategic integration of PPTV […]
Renren Kills Non-core Chinese Internet Businesses
Chen Yizhou, chief executive officer of Renren, says the company is planning to sell some non-core businesses to improve their profitability and they are also considering investment and expansion opportunities in America and Hong Kong. Chen revealed during an interview with local Chinese media that under the current model it is hard for the company […]
JD.com Teams With China Post To Expand O2O To Small Chinese Towns
Chinese B2C e-commerce website JD.com and China Post Group have reached a strategic deal to jointly develop an e-commerce platform targeting cities below third-tier size in China. With the cooperation, JD.com will provide various products, including PCs, digital products, home and kitchen supplies, and cosmetics, for China Post’s “people-benefit project”. Those products will reach 13 […]
Microsoft Ceases World’s Final MSN Holdout In China
Microsoft will officially close its instant messaging service MSN in China on October 31, 2014. Microsoft already shut down MSN services worldwide in March 2013, with the exclusion of the Chinese mainland market; and the company started promoting its other communications product Skype. According to Microsoft, Chinese MSN services will be shut down on October […]
Letv.com Establishes New Beijing Company For Mobile Phone Development
According to data from the Beijing Administration for Industry and Commerce, Letv has registered a new company named Letv Mobile Smart Information Technology (Beijing) Company Limited, with registered capital of CNY20 million. The business scope of this new company covers production and development of mobile phones and sales of communications devices, electronic products, mechanical equipment, […]
South Korea’s Lotte.com Inks Internet Payment Deal With China’s Alipay
Chinese third-party Internet payment company Alipay revealed that the company has reached a deal with South Korean website Lotte.com to provide a RMB payment channel to Chinese users who shop on the website. Furthermore, the products purchased on the website will be directly shipped from South Korea to China. Lotte.com and the Lotte duty free […]